THE FINANCIER
mercial arrangements which occur in every American
city, and that is what this particular paragraph is intended
to illustrate.
Stener, before his induction into office and in fact
some time before he was even nominated, had learned from
Mr. Strobik, who, by the way, was one of his sureties as
treasurer (which suretyship was against the law, as
were those of Councilmen Wycroft and Harmon, the law
of Pennsylvania stipulating that one political servant
might not become surety for another), that they would not
ask him to do anything which it was not perfectly legal
for him to do, but that he must be complacent and not
stand in the way of big municipal perquisites nor bite the
hands that fed him. They did not and never had. Not
only did Strobik, Wycroft, and Harmon make this
perfectly plain to him, but also that once he was well
in office a little money for himself was to be made.
As has been indicated, Mr. Stener had always been a
poor man. He had seen all those who had dabbled in
politics to any extent about him heretofore do very well
financially indeed, while he pegged along as an insurance
and real-estate agent. He had worked hard as a small
political henchman. Other politicians were building them-
selves nice homes in newer portions of the city. They
were going off to New York or Harrisburg or Washington
on jaunting parties. They were seen in happy converse
at road-houses or country hotels in season with their
wives or their women favorites, and he was not, as yet, of
this happy throng. He was promised something. What
would he get ?
When it came to this visit from Mr. Mollenhauer, withits
suggestion in regard to bringing city loan to par, although
it bore no obvious relation to Mollenhauer's distant con-
nection with Stener, or his control of Strobik and the
others, yet Stener dimly recognized it to be such, and hur-
ried to the latter for information.
" Just what would you do about this ?" he asked of
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